thrihyrne

I must admit I'd had a pretty good idea (99% certain) that my beloved was going to take me to Portland Opera's production of Galileo Galilei, though I didn't put two and two together until Sunday evening. But not only did he get just me a ticket, he bought two — together — and attended the opera with me. This may not sound like much, but minimalism isn't for everyone (I'll spare a brief thought to my uni roommate with whom I had to make a deal, which was never to play Philip Glass while she was in the room) and the opera genre isn't for everyone, so to combine the two and go out on a work night was a sweeping gesture for me.

evannichols and I experienced the work on different levels given our different backgrounds, and I was perhaps the more enraptured of the two due to my long-time fondness for the composer. He did quite enjoy it, I'm very glad to say. I happened to be sitting next to another Glass fan (versus primarily a POA supporter) who was going to be flying to L.A. tomorrow to hear a Glass world premiere conducted by John Adams, another famous minimalist composer. What struck me perhaps the most about the evening was as

evannichols and I were walking toward the theater, both of us decked out (first time I've seen him in person in coat and tie!), and I realized that technically this was our first real date for this second and lasting relationship incarnation. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful 'beginning.'

Along those lines, I'll be with him beginning this afternoon, so probably won't be posting as often as I have been. Tomorrow I do have a conversation/interview-of-sorts with a company I'm really intrigued with and a position I'd like to have, so I'll post about how that goes. I've definitely been in serious job hunting mode, and it seems to be paying off.

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/512654.html

Forgot to mention this in my last post about "I Am Love," which is that the composer John Adams composed the score. I think most people here know that I'm a fan of minimalist music; while an undergrad (I'm a music history/theory major, though at a liberal arts school, so the actual degree might not matter as much as some), I was given the nickname "Phyllis Glass" due to my deep affection for Philip Glass' music. I had to have an arrangement with my freshman and sophomore roommate about playing his music: I could only play it when she wasn't there. :P Anyway, this particular genre has come back into my life unexpectedly in the past couple of days due to watching "I Am Love" and now today watching a documentary about the New York City Ballet's trip to perform Balanchine's works in Russia in '03. I recognized the music for some of the choreography done by Jerome Robbins, as it's Glass' "Dance Music," a CD I owned back in the past but is now on my iTunes. Or I think it is…

Anyway, I'm enjoying my downtime here at the house, all quiet, just me and the cats and my knitting and documentaries and other movies and books.

I honestly thought that since I'd been diagnosed with being far-sighted in my mid-20s that I'd go straight from reading glasses to bifocals. My most recent eye exam thwarted that. I'm no longer far-sighted, which is odd, but does explain why I'd quit using my purchased reading glasses. I have a mild astigmatism in my left eye. Picked up my glasses this week, so here 'tis. I am trying to break them in, in that I'm used to reading glasses and looking down my nose to see things in 'correct' vision, but what I've discovered is that things have been fuzzier than I'd like. Still. When I feel the glasses on my face, I feel as though I'm wearing sunglasses. My astigmatism is slight enough that it's optional, to a point.
( pic below )

Tonight was also the Philip Glass event, with him talking about things, showing a bit from certain Cocteau films, and me being inordinately glad that he caught me lurking outside of our music studio. I'm glad that I was just a someone on the Portland Opera staff who got him to the restroom when he needed a break. And I'm glad I got to tell him that he meant something to me. That kind of mutual reciprocity, when the giver [say, me] is more toward the mundane scale and the receiver [him, say, major American composer/but just another guy who's getting older and whilst composing drove a cab, and helped a sculpturist and did what you do to get along] are able to have a normal conversation here in the Pacific Northwest and it's just all good…

I wholly admire him. If you're here in Portland or environs, come see Orphée. It's eloquent and transcendent and both stylized and down to earth and the best of that great soup we all draw from for our writings. Yes. I'M BIASED. I've studied Glass since 1989, I'm a Music History and Theory Major, but I'm a writer at heart. I may sound like more of a fangirl than I have in a while, and it's because before I knew I was a writer, I knew I was a musician, a singer, but those are in equal parts. It's why I was a history/theory major rather than performance. I delight in the fact that I can't read without a critical eye, and I cannot hear music without analyzing it. Orphée is even more exceptionally glorious because the composer was here. He's not dead. And I got to meet him.

And I'm still an insane squeeing fangirl because his music has influenced me throughout my adult life.

I've just had a short conversation with Philip Glass, who was practicing in the music studio next door. I was lurking in the hallway as he started and stopped, then after a while the door opened. He didn't look super startled to find me there. I told him how to find the men's restrooms (he asked) and I told him how much I was looking forward to his opera. He asked if I was in the production, and I said no, I was on the staff, but I'd begun seeing him live in 1991. "Here?" he asked, genuinely baffled. "No, in Nashville."

:D :D :D :D :D :D

This is definitely a highlight in my little life. Up close and personal. Wow. I'm totally starstruck.

We're close enough to a weekend that I've succumbed to a meme. :P

Reply to this post by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

WORDS from

jaiden_s (who now has a lovely autumnal-themed layout, reminding me that I'll be switching out myself with the equinox next Tuesday). Here we go!

ALWAYS

EdgeRadio

If people would like to play, feel free!

I'm house- and cat-sitting for my friends down the road. I'm definitely loving my own house to hang out in, and be quiet, and only talk to myself or the cats. That said, I've not brought a lot of music over, so last night while typing things in, I hung out at youtube and searched for a long-lost Australian band song that had come to mind, "Heaven (must be there)" by Eurogliders. In doing so, I found some kind soul had compiled whole groups of Australian and New Zealand hits by year. Tonight as I was making dinner, I found myself aching to hear some early Split Enz, and have listened to "One Step Ahead" several times now. Unbelievable to realize that that song came out in 1980, six years before I went to Australia to live for a year and was first introduced to so much formative music.

So for those of you who also have a hankering for early 80's Oz/NZ rock, here's the youtube link. It's so funny: as soon as I saw it, I remembered the video from my first MTV days back in '83, so I must have known about them before I was gifted with my year abroad.

I've been on LJ a lot today; just grateful it's working.

Self-disclosure: I was a music major at my Alma Mater; not because I thought I'd be a musician in real life for the rest of my life, but because it was easy to me. I couldn't major in choral music as a musician, so I majored in Music History/Theory. That said, I took a History of Music course my freshman year (fall 1988) and we had cassette tapes (yes) to listen to centuries of music. And in that was included an excerpt from Koyaanisqatsi, and I was hooked. I fell in love with Philip Glass' music, much to the chagrin of my roommate (now an accomplished artist in Charleston, South Carolina [Honor Marks]), and by the time of my senior year when I was a Music Major (Russian [very] minor), there was at least one other in our group of six or so who had derisively nicknamed me Phyllis Glass. I love minimalism. The only opera I've actually bought on CD is "Nixon in China." But I've spent much of this weekend watching Glass: a portrait of Philip in twelve parts, and I've found myself in tears more than once. He gets up each day and works. He works on hearing the music that's there, and then puts it out to the rest of us. He has the kind of discipline that I suppose I try to subconsciously put on myself. Toward the end of the film, he talks about a friend of his who's a writer.

"He makes the core of his life an act of imagination. Is that an escape or liberation? Who am I to say? I don't know these things!"

I adored the film, the documentary, about someone who transformed my perception of music, though it alienated me from my then-roommate. I wasn't allowed to play Philip Glass while she was in the room, and she didn't play more country-fied things. I wasn't very sophisticated, I must say. But I love Glass, the shimmering manipulations of meter and tonal change, and that I was able to sing a piece back in Nashville that had a Leonard Cohen text and Glass setting, and that Portland Opera is producing Orphée in November and Mr. Glass should be coming to town. Whether he does or not, I'll be raptly watching each of the four performances of the opera, and I can't wait. And not just because I've seen him four or five times before, all in Nashville.

There'll be motorcycles on stage. :)

I'll not use my fun double dagger symbol, but:
~ I actually secured some donations tonight, so, yay! Not even for the possible commission for me (they weren't major gifts by any means), but I spoke with lovely people and it helps an art form I believe in, opera.
~ One of my colleagues said I was a ray of sunshine. And she was being serious.
~ I went to a health food-ish chain grocery store to look for a gluten-free pie crust (not exactly for me; I love wheat and pasta and all of that) and ran into the homeowner of the house where I live. It was fun to see him in a different context, and totally out of the blue.
~ I'm getting a massage tomorrow morning!!
~ My Ron/Remus story was posted today, here at the

remus_ron_slash fest. It's locked as it's NC-17, and is on the longer side for this fest (a bit over 10K), so if you'd care to read a recently-written HP story from me, there 'tis. It needs some love. Or maybe just a comment or two. ;)
~ I'm going to go to at least one yarn store tomorrow, and take

evannichols along with me.
~ I'm able to listen to EdgeRadio again!

wolfiekins's station rocks.
~ I'm making progress on my

yuletide fic. I'm not supposed to discuss any details about it publicly, but I think I'll feel quite accomplished and proud of it when finished.
~ I wrote

cim_halfling a letter this morning. :)
~ To work tonight I wore a cool vest designed by Jade Starmore that I knitted several years ago, and felt pretty stoked about the number of interesting garments and gifts I've knitted over the years. Mine was knitted in a purple heathered yarn, not the goldenrod this person did, but it shows the pattern really well.
~ I think I'll now go and sign up for

slashy_santa. Because I don't have enough on my plate. ;)

Yes, for those of you who are into this, I created a soundtrack of sorts for this novella as well, featuring songs that I either listened to obsessively while writing it and/or songs I felt went along with Vaysh as a character and all I put him through. The megaupload link is here; I don't think they last forever. It's a zip file.

( here is the liner art, or you can just see the playlist )

Enjoy! And crazy me, I started writing something else Wraeththu last night, set off in the future and not a gap-filler, though I think I'd also like to write another shorter fic with the characters I've fallen for. There's something about Wraeththu in their earlier, more feral days that really appeals to me. I've had two requests with Ulaume, and one friend has mentioned the Froia, though I may have to write a Seel/Ashmael when Ashmael was having regular frolics with him in Saltrock. There'd be some definite bittersweet there, and some guilt-free rooning.

At any rate, please enjoy the music and let me know if you have any comments or thoughts on the soundtrack, or anything else to do with those two novellas. You all have been so generous in your appreciation of my writing and exploration of the characters… thank you, again!! ♥

I bring music! For those who read along with my Wraeththu gap filler novella, I have a soundtrack of sorts to go with it. Some songs correspond with the characters' development and actions, as well as a couple just as 'soundtrack music' for the scenes as I envisioned them in my head, and also music I listened to while writing it over the past couple of months. As a part of this I'd like to thank

sexyscholar,

llembas,

eccequambonum and

wolfiekins for plying me with music that otherwise I'd have been shamefully unaware of.

( under the cut is artwork and a link to the zip file )

My workdays are quite frenetic, hence why I've not posted much during the week. My job has decidedly changed, but as I've become a bit more used to it, as well as fine-tuned my attitude, things have improved. I do find myself looking askance in many ways at some lower management decisions, and can only shake my head. Of the three supervisors for customer care, I believe the oldest is 26 or 27. So... I've been out in the workforce for at least a decade longer than all of them, and have a bit more perspective, which keeps me from going slightly batshite on occasion.

So! ( music and links! )

I've also finally taken a couple of leisurely walks down the dirt road which I now live on. There are a lot of cows nearby, as well as some 'regular' houses that aren't on farms. Lots of dogs, and trucks, and large swaths of grassy hills until they meet treelines. It's delightfully quiet and relatively serene out here, truly. You can't hear the highway, and due to a distinct lack of street lights, the stars at night when the sky is clear is absolutely phenomenal. Did I mention there's no shortage of cows down the road? Pretty funny. I'm settling in well to the new place and the independence of my roommates means that we can chat if we want, but pretty much we all do our own thing, which I find to be just perfect.

Not much in writing news: finished the epilogue for my

ginger_lust fic which has already been beta'ed and is now at a second; edited for two of my dear friends; wrote two drabbles over at

rondracodrabble and have found myself getting back to the last installment of "Magic Immunity." I did get a short but enthusiastic review for "Crown of Rope" over at Skyehawke, which was gratifying.

I hope that you all have a good beginning to your week! Oh, and

risiepookie, thank you so much for your gorgeous card and bookmark and the pictures! How splendid to have pictures of your smiling face that I can look at any time. :D

Current Music: Edrys' Mood Music

Due to so much overtime that I've worked, as a way of saying thanks, my supervisor has given me (and my coworkers) movie tickets which don't expire. I doubt that December Boys will ever come here, and I'm just not up on what else is out there, so I went over to Apple's trailers site— I'm an unrepentant Mac User. ::looks lovingly at months-new Mac mini, hereby named Bianca:: Before that, even, Friday afternoon I looked to see what actually was playing here, and both Elizabeth and Into the Wild caught my eye. I've decided that going to see wide expanses of Alaskan landscapes is going to be the one I see on the big screen today. In looking at the trailers, though, I also noticed Control, about the lead singer of Joy Division, which looks fabulous; and probably will never come here. The other one which caught my heart and already pulled — hard — on my heartstrings, is Grace is Gone with John Cusak. John Cusak's name was more than enough to get me to click on it, but seeing him as a father (which is totally plausible; he's only four years older than I am), and the circumstances... I'm so there. And in a very melancholy way, it made me think a bit of my own former situation. Still, it looks like a definite winner, coming out in early December.

In music news, my High Sister of Music Holiness,

sexyscholar, loves to make mixes, and she's made a special Ron/Draco mix that she shared with

stuckinsea and myself and now I can't stop listening to it. I find the cross-pollination, as it were, of music combinations and the thought processes behind it from my friends absolutely fascinating. I'll admit it: I love being a recipient of CD mixes, because inevitably I'm exposed to artists and songs I'd never otherwise know about. To beat this metaphor into the ground, it is indeed creative and all kinds of inspired stories influenced by their musical gifted offerings have blossomed from my purple-ink pens. As I wrote to

sexyscholar in an email last night, I've now had multiple exposures to groups like Garbage and Muse and Bjork and Interpol from different mixes from different friends, and the kaleidoscoping creativity behind all of this is really enough to make me dizzy at times.

You all awe me, truly.

Got to unplug here for a bit and go write, and then escape into the world of a guy who I could have gone to college with. And I very unwittingly left out

eldritchhobbit in my previous post of people who have sent gorgeous correspondence through the post. I also have a dedicated space for music mixes from her. You rock, m'dear!!

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Love and Philip Glass

Music minimalism

Men seldom make passes...

OMGOMGOMG. I was just half a foot away from Philip Glass. We had a short conversation.

Five Words meme

Music flashback

A last musician's spamming

Simple Friday pleasures

"Down the Whispering Well," the soundtrack!

"Desire Thine Darkling"- a Maelstrom and Mage soundtrack

Music, walks, and enjoying the quiet

Movie thoughts and music

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January 2023

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